World population is increasing. The size of Earth is not. This is a relationship with a troubling future. The current world population is 6.5 billion and will exceed 9.5 billion by the year 2050. That's increase of 50% more people in less than 45 years. There is no indicataion that Earth is going to expand by 50% in the next 45 years. But wait you say, there's pleanty of open space for building homes, factories and cities! What's the problem?

Carrying Capacity - The Earth is not an inert chunk of dirt just waiting to become a parking lot for humans. The Earth is a living dynamic system in which a multitude of life supporting processes are being carried out every minute of every day. These are processes that all species, even humans, depend upon for survival. So when we at unsprawl.net look at Earth's carrying capacity, we're not just looking at how may people fit on the planet. We are talking about how people can there exist before are depleating resources than they can be renewed. Some say that we have already past that point. Indeed if everyone on the planet were to consume resouces like Americans do, then we would need 1 1/2 earhts, and that's at the current population.

This is why we need to rethink how we utilize space. Artificial Land concepts give us a new way to think about space. Actually we've been creating artificial land on a small scale ever since humans first decided to build their hut on a stilt platform or add a second story to a house. But now we need to think on a larger scale. We need to think in terms of multi-storied cities. Mega structures that are highly integrated systems that support more people and more activities in less space. But more importantly provide a higher quality of life.